To the true higher-ups of the Myriad Heavens, the ruler that inexplicably appeared in the World of Gods was no secret.
So just when everyone believed that old man would never appear in the Myriad Heavens again…
He came back. Bringing along all the Star Rulers who left with him in the first place, he returned to Zi Luo Heaven bombastically, establishing the headquarters of the now well-known Heaven-God Alliance in Zi Luo Heaven.
Zi Luo Heaven had been an ownerless plane for tens of thousands of years, but the moment Zi Luo Elder returned, it now had a master.
Also from this moment onwards, the term "Thirteen Heavens" officially became a thing of the past. Now, they should be called the Fourteen Heavens.
But what really baffled people was that Academic Heaven's Song Fei didn't express any opinion—let alone make any move—regarding Zi Luo Elder's return.
Similarly, that old man also didn't express any dissatisfaction with the ruler that appeared that day. Both parties acted as if nothing had happened.
This bizarre attitude couldn't help but cause the onlookers to fall silent as well.
If not for the fact that Zi Luo Elder's power couldn't be faked, people would've thought this was actually a dream.
It wasn't until one day, when one of Song Fei's disciples seemingly unintentionally revealed something in a conversation, that the time limit of "ten years" was gradually spread around the world.
Subsequently, because of the tacit confirmation from the rest of the Unified Dao powerhouses, the news increased in authenticity.
However, these were all later events focused on Zi Luo Elder and had little to do with Gu Nan.
What was truly related to Gu Nan was another matter.
As soon as he re-entered the Myriad Heavens, he returned to his Divine Kingdom, yet the moment he was about to descend, a sword and a hossu hit him simultaneously.
The ambushers, who'd been lying in wait for a long time, hit Gu Nan head-on without any warning—of course, he also had no intention of dodging it.
The longsword instantly pierced Gu Nan's neck, while the hossu struck him hard on his forehead, the strong impact causing space to shatter… Only Gu Nan remained unmoved.
The scene seemed to freeze all of a sudden, and Gu Nan's unresponsive appearance caused the hearts of the two ambushers to turn slightly cold.
"Go!" The Sword Arhat quickly pulled back his sword as he swiftly retreated, already realizing that the ambush was a failure, but he saw his companion lag behind.
The Buddhist Daoist was merely one step slower, yet it was already too late for him, all because the hossu in his hand was already grasped by Gu Nan.
The Buddhist Daoist, a Star Ruler who already possessed Tier 7 strength despite his astral world not reaching Realm Level yet, was powerless before Gu Nan.
All of his laws, attainment, and astral world's power became a joke when he delivered himself to Gu Nan in close combat.
The Sword Arhat was already regretting their decision. They thought only Gu Nan's astral world was special and that the person himself wasn't too strong since he'd only just taken control of an astral world.
However, they didn't realize that merely in terms of personal strength, the other party was also far beyond the two's imagination.
In order to ambush the opponent, they purposely chose to fight in close combat, delivering themselves right to Gu Nan's door.
Gu Nan grabbed the hossu with one hand, a cold smile already on his face as he swung a fist straight at the Buddhist Daoist's head. At the same time, he aimed a kick at the enemy's stomach while his other leg bent, his knee heading towards the Sword Arhat.
This set of movements was done in a natural, flowing manner, causing Gu Nan's entire body to twist into an odd posture, yet it was full of mechanical beauty.
Gu Nan was at least a virtual reality wrestling master, so his understanding of small-scale fighting really wasn't inferior to these Star Rulers who fought with laws for years on end.
After his initial shock, the Buddhist Daoist didn't hesitate any longer and directly let go of the hossu in his hand, his figure retreating explosively.
However, he clearly couldn't beat Gu Nan in terms of speed, so the Buddhist Daoist could only barely incline his head to avoid Gu Nan's fatal punch, although his stomach was inevitably subjected to that kick.
The Buddhist Daoist felt like his stomach had been hit by a star. He'd never experienced such a hard hit ever since he entered Star Ruler Realm, so this kind of pain was especially unfamiliar to him.
Gu Nan, however, gained momentum and avoided the Sword Arhat by virtue of an earlier knee strike, immediately chasing after the Buddhist Daoist and raining down two more punches.
"Wait!" Seeing that he was unable to stop the other party, the Sword Arhat instantly shouted, "Don't you want to know who sent us here? Someone is secretly scheming you—"
Wham!
Gu Nan's fist struck the head of the Buddhist Daoist, instantly blasting the latter's head to pieces and destroying his soul.
"Not really," Gu Nan shook off the blood on his hand and turned to reply.
...
The ambush near his Divine Kingdom wasn't taken seriously by Gu Nan.
As players leveled up and attracted more and more enemies, this sort of thing had long since become commonplace.
The two's ambush ended with the instantaneous fall of the Buddhist Daoist and the escape of the Sword Arhat; the two didn't die together.
True, the Evil God physique was powerful, but not to the point of omnipotence. Simply put, the goal Gu Nan pursued was invincibility within five meters, and anything outside that range was none of his business.
If the Star Rulers kept enough of a distance from him, it would be very hard for Gu Nan to pursue and kill them. After all, all of these people had many methods of preserving their lives.
Instead, the apostles who were about to welcome Gu Nan's return collectively entered a state of explosive productivity after this incident.
In the days of Gu Nan's absence, both the group of veteran apostles led by Red Tail, who had always been loyal to Gu Nan, and the group of new apostles led by Bai Xi, who had returned from White Bones Realm, all realized Gu Nan's importance.
Normally, it seemed as if the Divine Kingdom could function as usual without Gu Nan, and his absence wouldn't have much of an impact, but the actual situation wasn't so simple.
Without Gu Nan, the Divine Kingdom had no goal. With no one to launch Divine Kingdom Wars and no one to spend the points that piled up, the Divine Kingdom's development was far slower than it had been before.
And when the development of the Divine Kingdom came to a standstill, the apostles naturally couldn't enjoy the benefits of development, be it the pursuit of power or authority.
Thus, with everyone competing to perform their best, a mere two hours later, information about the monk-Daoist pair was placed in front of Gu Nan's table.
"Pretty fast," Gu Nan couldn't help commenting as he glanced at it.
"The Sword Arhat and the Buddhist Daoist's characteristics are quite obvious among the Star Rulers of the Myriad Heavens. They also made no attempt to hide themselves," Red Tail quickly explained.
Gu Nan nodded and started reading the information. He was actually quite unsuited for the role of a leader or even a manager—after all, he was just a gamer.
He only knew how to play games and, in passing, learned how to kill people in the game—that was all.
Thankfully, as long as he had enough power, Gu Nan didn't need to fear anyone's betrayal, and there would even be a group of people who would spontaneously gather around him.
All the abilities in this world were important, and among them, the ability to control people's life and death was the most important of them all.